The Armies of Iraq (Al Jazeera)
The Armies of Iraq
Quote:
Four years ago the fighting in Iraq was just beginning. The armed group al-Qaeda in Iraq did not even exist and Sunni and Shia groups were working together against the US-led forces.
Three years ago, sectarian divisions escalated into a battle some believe has reached civil war proportions.
Now the fighters have turned against each other.
This year has seen Shia infighting on the streets of Iraqi cities such as Karbala and Sunni armed groups fighting to keep al-Qaeda out of their regions.
In a series of exclusive reports, Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid reports on the new reality of Iraq's many armies.
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Part One - Iraq's Sunni armies ( Click here to watch Part One - on YouTube )
Part Two - Iraq's Shia militias
Part Three - Iraq's security forces
Part Four - the US army
Part Five - al-Qaeda
All media, worldwide, has biases. One simply has to
filter the presentations and try to cut through that bias. Some people are willing to do that, others want to accept -- or violently reject -- that bias.
Been my observation that three sources, preferably opposing and competing, with logical filtering are the minimum required to get an approximate picture. It is virtually impossible to get an accurate picture unless one is actually at the point of the item or issue.
Anyone who bases a course of action solely on media accounts -- or an Intel estimate, they suffer from the same bias problem; it's a human foible -- will likely err.